FF20: Hidden Truths
by shannyfish
Summary: Oliver goes to Central City to pick up Felicity when she's too upset to drive herself home. For SmoaknArrow's Olicity Flash Fiction Prompt #20: Truth or Dare.


_"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." ~ Buddah_

. . .

"You know what would make this trip go by faster?"

"You talking to me?"

Okay, so she was guilty of that. She'd been silent since Oliver had picked her up from Central City. It wasn't her fault, okay maybe it was. Felicity had been there visiting Barry and she'd...she'd just needed to go home but had been too upset to drive herself. Oliver had hoped onto a train and had shown up. Felicity had actually been expecting Diggle because it would have been far less awkward. She bit her lip for a moment and nodded her head before speaking again. "Okay...guilty…"

"What would make this trip go by faster?" Oliver asked her as he glanced over at her for a moment before looking back at the road.

"A game."

Oliver laughed. "Like I spy?"

"I was thinking more like truth or dare."

"In the car?"

"Well, we could always just play truth…" Felicity said without really thinking her sentence through, but shrugged just the same. Her brain just mainly wanted to think about something else...than what it HAD been focusing on. She needed the distraction. "Maybe we'll learn a little more about each other…"

"Okay," Oliver agreed after a moment.

"So...ask me something…about something…" Felicity rambled. She'd thought about just telling him that they both could start from the beginning of their lives and telling each other every single detail, but she had a feeling that her life was far, far, far more boring than Oliver's was.

"You never talk about your family… Siblings? Parents?"

"Only child," Felicity told him. That wasn't so hard. "My mom works in Vegas and my dad...he-"

"You ask me something now," Oliver said, as if rescuing her.

She realized that she'd told him about her parents briefly before. Felicity thought and tried to think of something to ask him that she didn't know. She'd done a lot of research on Oliver since she'd started to work with him. "You and Thea," she said quietly, not really thinking about the fact that Thea had left Starling City. "Were you always close?"

"Growing up, we really were… It was easy, I guess… We had the same circle of friends… Thea was more than a little sister, she was a friend."

He sounded so happy talking about Thea and Felicity wished that he hadn't had to help in pushing Thea out of Starling City. It was for her own good, Felicity knew that, to keep Thea safe while Slade tried to destroy the city. She was traveling the world at the moment and Felicity was sure the only reason Oliver was keeping it together was because Thea kept texting him where she was. He'd asked for pictures, but so far she hadn't sent any.

"Why did you take the job at QC?"

Felicity's head snapped over to look at him. It had been quiet for a moment and she had thought that maybe she'd made Oliver sad thinking about Thea and the game was over. "Be-because I applied for it...and I-I got it… I mean, going to college was a leap...it meant leaving home," Felicity explained. She was fairly sure that she'd rambled this to him in tears not too long ago. "And I needed the money...and it seemed like an easy enough job."

He just smiled over at her before turning his attention back to the road again. "Your turn," he said a moment later.

"Do you wish you'd told Thea the truth?" Felicity asked. When he looked at her, Felicity knew that he wondered what she meant. "I mean...about you not knowing until very recently that Malcolm Merlyn is her father...not the Arrow part… I know you don't tell you that to keep her safe, though...more lies, you know...Thea's stance on lies."

Oliver tapped the steering wheel with his finger. "You're right, I don't want to endanger Thea by telling her that I'm the Arrow… I honestly am not sure how she'd feel about that-"

"Especially because you shot Roy?"

He nodded. "Though, Roy and I are friends now, so-"

"Who you are also training behind her back…"

Oliver nodded again. "True…" He paused for a moment. "But I don't know… In hindsight, I guess it's better this way, it was easier to get Thea to leave… It was easier after-after my mother-"

"I'm sorry-I didn't mean to-Oliver, I'm sorry…"

"It's okay," Oliver told her.

"I wasn't thinking," Felicity continued to apologize as she turned all of her attention to him. "I-"

"Why were you so upset?" Oliver questioned.

"Um-"

"Did Barry do something? I-I can't think of any other reason why you would be so upset…"

Felicity covered her face with her hand as Oliver changed the subject and the light turned back to her. She was glad that they were off the subject of Oliver's dead mother, but this wasn't where she had wanted to go with it. This was HER game though and she had promised to tell him the truth to whatever question that he'd ask. She just hadn't imagined that he'd actually bring up that.

"Barry...Barry said something," Felicity told Oliver and looked over to see that he looked upset, his fists clenched on the steering wheel. She realized that he must think that Barry did something to her...but the only thing he'd done was to open her eyes. "Something that I didn't want to admit…"

"What did he say, Felicity?"

Silence.

"Felicity?"

She realized that she had been silent for some time and hadn't said anything more. Felicity was sure that she could get away with being silent for the remainder of the car ride, but not only would that be rude…she felt like Oliver deserved his answer. It took her a moment to really feel up to speaking on it, though. Felicity wanted to feel like she could say the correct words and not to completely ramble. "Barry and I kissed...and it wasn't...it wasn't the same...it wasn't-" And she was rambling just the same. She was sure that Oliver was wondering WHY she would be telling him such a thing. He probably really didn't want to know who she was kissing…

Her gaze turned to look at him and she realized that he seemed to be waiting for her to continue. Felicity hadn't expected that. "It wasn't like it was between the two of us," Felicity admitted. "Even if I was upset with you… There was something between us, with Barry...it was just different…" That was the best that she could describe it. She loved Barry, she did, but not in the same way that she loved Oliver. There was something more between them and Felicity didn't know if it was because they'd known each other longer or if it was because they'd worked together and been friends for so long. She didn't have that with Barry. Felicity just stared at him. "I don't love Barry the way I love you...and I guess I was hoping that maybe if I could love Barry the same...then I could see a way to move on...to stop hurting so much…"

Oliver seemed surprised by her words and she supposed that so was she. "Felicity—"

"I know that you don't think you deserve to be happy…or want to risk my life, Oliver," she interrupted as tears fell from her eyes. "But just because you made that choice, it doesn't make it easier for me…" Felicity turned her head to look out her window. "When Barry was in Starling City before…he caught on to how I felt about you then…" She shook her head as she stared into the darkness outside. "You always want who you can't have, right?" she asked as she looked over at him. His eyes met hers and as his mouth opened to speak, panic overtook Felicity as a bright light suddenly appeared on the side of the driver's side and was coming towards them. There wasn't an intersection and— "Oliver!" she screamed before the car was hit.

. . .

**TWO WEEKS LATER**

The beep of the monitors pushed into her consciousness, followed shortly by the sunlight that heated her face. Felicity lifted her head from the bed, her blonde hair shifted, and she ran her fingers through it to try to tame it. Her eyes looked to his face, his eyes were still closed. Letting out a sigh, she roughly ran her hands over her make-up-less face to try to wake herself up more.

"You're going to make yourself sick," Diggle said.

She turned to look at him, a smile slowly stretching across her face. "But you brought me coffee…"

"Coffee, breakfast, and essentials," Diggle told her as he stepped further into the hospital room. He was carrying two duffel bags, a paper sack, and a tray of coffee.

"You're the best."

He handed her the coffee first. "Now if you'd just listen to me about getting some descent sleep and an actual meal that wasn't brought to you by me or brought up from the cafeteria…"

Felicity had heard that same lecture for over a week now. She'd had minor injuries and had been kept an extra day just for observation. Oliver hadn't been so lucky. The driver's side had taken the brunt of the crash, Oliver had been put into a medically induced coma and had already had three surgeries. He'd stabilized, but the doctors had just said that he'd wake up when he was ready. Sleep equaled healing, so Felicity felt like that meant he was never waking up. To her, he seemed so injured…but Diggle kept assuring her that he was strong and he'd be fine.

"The moment I leave his side and leave the hospital, he'll wake up, and I won't be here," Felicity told him as she squeezed Oliver's hand lightly. "I NEED to be here… Maybe if I hadn't distracted him while he was driving, then he would have seen that truck—"

"We've been over this," Diggle told her. He sat down in the chair next to her, the bags settling on the floor while he balanced his coffee and the small paper bag on his knee, he put his arm around her, and pulled her in close. "None of this is your fault—"

"Have you found out anything more about who did it?"

"Lyla's been looking into it—"

Felicity shook her head. "But the baby—"

"Believe me, Felicity, she appreciates doing something that feels like work." Diggle dropped a kiss on her head. "We're going to find out whoever did this…"

"I've been starting to wonder if they knew that Oliver is the—"

"Lyla and I discussed that too," Diggle cut her off. "It's a possibility that someone's trying to take out the people trying to keep Starling City safe… First Sara and now—"

Felicity shook her head quickly as she tried to keep the tears from falling. "But Oliver's going to be fine. The doctors said so. He's going to recover and he's going to be FINE."

"Yes," Diggle said softly as he placed a kiss on her head again. "But it's a possibility…OR you could have been the target…OR it could have been random."

They HAD been driving in her car. Felicity felt like if someone really wanted her dead, though, they would have had all kinds of opportunities when she was in Central City. "Let's face it," she told him as she let the tears fall. "Nothing's ever random in our lives anymore…"

Diggle let out a short laugh. "You need to eat."

She heard the paper bag rustle and then he was shoving a wrapped something into her hand. "Yeah and Oliver needs to wake up." Felicity sat up straight and started to unwrap the item in her hand. It was a breakfast sandwich, which she supposed was actually better for her than a bagel or a donut or something like that. Diggle brushed away her tears and ran his fingers through her hair quickly as he pushed it back behind one ear. "Don't worry about me so much, John," she whispered and looked down. "I'm going to eat."

"I know you are," he said with a smile. "I'm going to make sure you are."

Felicity had eaten her sandwich and drank her coffee, she was still tired. Diggle hadn't started another lecture…yet…about how she needed to sleep in her own bed for a night. Instead, he'd pulled her so she was resting up against him and her eyes had slid closed. At least she knew that if something happened, Diggle would shift or say something. She just couldn't leave him. Felicity didn't know how much time had passed, but she'd slipped so deep that at first she had thought the sound she'd heard was nothing, but then Diggle moved. Her eyes shot wide open and she watched as Diggle moved to check Oliver. "What's going on?"

"I thought he said something," Diggle told her.

"Oliver?" she spoke up. She was so used to them speaking softly in the room, it was almost alarming to speak louder. Felicity moved forward to the edge of her chair, taking his hand again, and waited for a response. "Oliver? We're here. John and I. You're going to be fine."

Before words rolled out of his mouth, his face scrunched up which was what Felicity noticed first. His words were strained, quiet, but sounded like he could barely get them out. "Fe-li-city?"

"I'm here," Felicity said quickly as she got up from her chair, his hand still in hers.

"Y—okay?"

Felicity nodded and then realized his eyes hadn't opened just yet. "I'm okay," she told him.

"It's been two weeks, Oliver," Diggle explained. "Felicity has to wear a wrist brace for hopefully only another week and then she'll be in the clear."

Oliver's eyes finally opened and she couldn't stop smiling. "Hey—"

"You're crying," he said slowly and sounded so confused. Oliver seemed so worried over her as his hand came up and pushed away the tears.

"I'm just happy to see you awake."

"She hasn't gone home or left your side, even though I told her to," Diggle said. "I'm going to let one of the nurses know that you're awake." Diggle patted Oliver's shoulder before leaving the room.

"You're really okay?" Oliver asked as his hand rested against her cheek.

Felicity nodded. The bruises and cuts had healed. Her wrist was just sore and stiff, nothing major, so the doctor thought it just needed a little more rest and limited movement. Hence, the brace. "You went through THREE surgeries."

Oliver sighed. "I guess insurance CAN come in handy-"

"I took care of it-"

"How?"

"Don't worry about it right now," she told him as she waved her hand. Right now, that wasn't important. Felicity knew that Oliver wouldn't approve, but she HAD to do what was best for him even if he wouldn't approve. So, she changed the subject. "I tried calling Thea-"

"It's okay. Nothing she could have done anyway."

"Doctors said you'll make a full recovery," Felicity told him. "They had to relieve swelling in your brain...but all the tests have come back fine. Believe me, I've had them run EVERY test."

He smiled in response.

"They took you in for a really, really, REALLY long time...and put a pin in your lower leg and then totally replaced your knee." She watched Oliver wince. "They were just going to repair your knee, but you wouldn't have been able to have the life-"

"Felicity, this has to have cost-"

"Your arm was dislocated and broken, but they've fixed that too," she told him as she moved on, ignoring his protests. "So, you've really probably saved your sanity a bit because that's two weeks off your recovery time…"

"Felicity-"

"I'm serious," she continued. "Now you've just got about six more weeks...but that doesn't mean that you can go out and go jumping from roof to-"

He pulled her to him and kissed her. Felicity was silenced and her tears fell from her cheeks to his. "I'm sorry I scared you…" he whispered.

"Please, don't do it again," Felicity practically pleaded.

Oliver separated from her and looked up at her, a smile in place. "That didn't count as a second date, did it?"

"No," she responded with a laugh. Felicity wiped tears away. "It definitely did NOT."

"We're going to talk...but not today," Oliver told her. "Today...you need to sleep...and I need to...process…"

She nodded and just stared at him. "You DO realize that there's no way in hell that John or I are letting you go back to the Foundry to recuperate once you ARE released, right? You're coming home with me, no arguments. It'll be quieter…"

"I'm not going to argue…"

"Good," she whispered and wiped stray tears away. Felicity leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead. She straightened, knowing that Diggle would be back with a nurse and a doctor likely any moment.

"Felicity?"

"Yeah?"

"Truth or dare?"

. . .

The End.


End file.
